Welcome To Wherever You Are
by Rossignol1984
Summary: It doesn’t matter where you are together. What matters is that you are. SS one shot.


_A/N: So this was supposed to be the beginning of a mutliple-chapter story, but a friend and I thought it would make a much better one shot, and here it is. As you might know me, it's cheesy to no end, and it takes place in the future. In January, in Providence. Please review!_

It was just one of these ordinary winter mornings in Rhode Island. One of these mornings where the cold made you see your breath when you exhaled, and where your fingers felt like ice blocks within minutes. One of these mornings when your cheeks and nose became red as Rudy's as soon as you left a building.

Summer Roberts would never have guessed that she would actually grow fond of days like this, but sometime, somehow a few weeks before Christmas, when the first real snow had been coming falling down from the sky, she fell in love with it.

Summer had never experienced "real" snow before – well, she had been on a few winter vacations with her Dad and step-mother in her early teenage years, and she even managed to not break a bone while skiing, but she had never really lived in between the snow. She had never seen frost patterns grow on her windows, or made a snowball fight.

Even if the snow tempted her to do so right now, to feel like a little child, she tried her best to enjoy just walking in the snow, and listening to the quiet it brought to the usual busy city of Providence. There was no one she could share her childish joys with anyway. Because ever since the beginning of the fall semester, Summer had been alone.

Well, not really alone, she had met a few nice people she hung out with from time to time, but she had never really wanted to get too close to them, or spend too much time with them, even if she liked them very much. The only person she couldn't avert spending a ridiculous amount of time with was her dorm roommate Ashley, a dark haired girl from Florida.

On campus, Summer and Ashley were known as "The Sunshine Girls", since both of them came from America's most famous sunshine states. Just for fun, Ashley had put a huge paper sun on the outside of their dorm room door, just to underline their reputation, which made Summer like her even more. Ashley was one of the few people at Brown you could actually talk to – about everything, not just about politics or arts and stuff the students were taught in classes. Ashley was more like the down-to-earth-girl type Summer could easily connect with, and she was thankful for a roommate like her.

When Summer had first arrived at Brown, she had been a wreck. She hadn't dealt with the loss of her best friend Marissa Cooper, who had died in a terrible car crash one day after graduation yet, and to top her grieve and sadness about Marissa's death, she had to go to Providence alone. Her boyfriend Seth Cohen, who she longed to be with more and more every day, had messed up their college future in the middle of High School Senior Year, and he hadn't gotten into Brown just like they had planned it.

Instead of going to Brown, Seth had been approved to RISD, the Rhode Island School of Design, for January. Ever since she had gotten to Brown, Summer had counted the days until they would finally see each other again for longer than just the Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends. And tomorrow would be the day.

The day she had been waiting for so long had finally arrived, and Summer felt herself being excited about Seth's arrival like a little child was excited for its birthday presents. Yes, Summer longed for Seth to take her loneliness away, to hold her, to kiss her, to just be young and in love. After all that they had been through ever since they had gotten together in the first place, Summer was sure they deserved that. To just live and see what happens.

With glowing cheeks she entered her dorm building and descended the broad wooden stairway to the room she shared with Ashley. As usual, she found their door unlocked and the room empty. If there was one thing Summer hated about Ashley it was that she never locked the door when she left. Not that that was necessary at Brown, but to Summer a locked door meant privacy. Sighing, Summer closed the door behind her and threw her bag on her bed.

Afterwards, she put her shoes off and placed them on the newspapers that were spread next to the door, so that the melting snow wouldn't mess up the whole room. After she had taken her jacket, scarf and gloves off, she fell down on the bed next to her bag and stared at the ceiling, listening to the sounds that came from outside. As usual, there were a few people talking, and a few doors were slammed, but it was nothing Summer hadn't heard before.

For a short moment, Summer closed her eyes and sighed, her heart filling with anticipation of the upcoming day. Seth's plane would arrive sometime around noon, and she couldn't wait for that. They had seen each other for Chrismukkah, which had only been one and a half weeks ago, but those one and a half weeks had seemed like a little eternity to Summer. The longer their separation lasted, the more she seemed to miss Seth, and she was more than glad that he would finally come to her and that they could start living their dream together.

Just as Summer slowly began to doze off, her bag started vibrating, and her eyes flung open again. She reached into her bag and located the cell phone immediately, and when she saw the caller ID, her heart began to jump a little. Smiling broadly, she flipped the phone open.

"Seth!" she chimed, eagerly waiting to hear his low, sexy voice.

"Hey you." Seth replied from the other end of the line, and Summer felt herself smiling even broader. It was weird what a stupid person love could make out of you sometimes. "How are you?"

"Now I'm all good." Summer replied sincerely and started to twist a strand of her long brown wavy hair around her finger. "What about you?"

"All excited."

Summer smiled and felt the urge to kiss him rising inside of her. "Why would you be, Cohen?"

Seth laughed a little. "Don't tease me, woman. I remember you being completely fucked when you left. I think even the Pacific ocean doesn't have that much water than your tear-flow back then."

Summer rolled her eyes. "Come on, you know I cried cuz I didn't wanna leave you. You _wanna_ come here, that's the difference."

"Yeah, I wanna come there, but… I'm still scared like hell."

"Aww, my poor baby boy's scared that he's gonna miss mommy?"

"Hahaha."

Summer grinned, very proud of herself. "I was just thinking about you." She said and moved a little in the direction of her pillow.

"I know." Seth said and Summer frowned.

"Huh? Are you playing 'read-my-mind' again?"

"No, I was just thinking about you too."

Summer smiled. "You obviously were, otherwise you wouldn't have called me, silly."

"You win."

"I know." Summer replied and smiled contently. "So any news back home in good old California?"

Seth sighed. "Not really. Ryan's trying to cope at Berkeley, somehow… and Julie seems to be doing better thanks to her therapy."

Only hearing about the huge aftermath Marissa's death had brought with it made Summer want to cry all over again. "I miss her so much." She whispered and wiped a stray tear that had been coming away.

"I know." Seth replied and sighed. If there was one thing he hated about being separated it was that he couldn't hold her when she was crying. That he couldn't really comfort her over the phone. "I'm hugging you right now."

Despite all of her sadness, Summer had to laugh. "You're stupid."

"You love me for it."

"I do." Summer replied sincerely and turned to her side to look at the photo from him that was on her nightstand. "And I can't wait until tomorrow."

"Me neither." Seth said and sighed contently. "First thing I'm gonna do when I come is kiss you, and hug you… and inhale that smell of your shampoo."

Summer laughed. "My shampoo? You never did that before, Cohen."

"Time to invent something new for our relationship then, huh?"

"You're being weird." Summer said and frowned. "Did you smoke pot again?"

Seth grinned but shook his head at the other end of the line. "Duh, women! They tell you they want romance, and as soon as you bring some romance into your relationship they don't appreciate it."

Summer laughed some more, and felt better than she ever had since she had gotten up. Seth had always had his very own, very strange way of making her laugh and forget about her sorrows, and today was not different.

"I have a surprise for tomorrow." She whispered and closed her eyes.

"You do? What's it about?" Seth asked.

Smiling, Summer opened her eyes again to look at Seth's photo in front of her. "If I would tell you now it wouldn't be a surprise anymore, baby."

"I'm bored as fuck." Seth replied, and Summer frowned. Sometimes it was really nice of him to listen to her when she was talking. That was one thing you couldn't change about Seth Cohen – when he thought about himself in the middle of a conversation, he had to tell you somehow – just as he had done now.

"Well, that's no surprise, seeing as you didn't do anything since I left." Summer said. She could totally understand that Seth was bored as hell back home in Newport. Ever since Ryan and her had left, he was all on his own, without a job, without friends. The only person he could have done something with was maybe Marissa's sister Kailtin, but the same was too busy to build herself some reputation at Harbor School, and, after all, Seth didn't really want to have to do anything with anybody from the Cooper family. To him, they had always been weird, and ever since Marissa's demise they had only been weirder.

So he had hung out at home, played some Playstation alone, had made tons of Summer comic book drawings to put up on his walls, read all of the books in his room – twice – and had waited for the time to pass. His evenings were dedicated to telephone calls with Summer, and they never stayed below the time limit of three hours. And even if they didn't talk they could spend hours just hearing the other one breathe and imagine that there weren't almost 5,000 miles separating them.

But tomorrow his nightmare of loneliness would finally be over, and he would start living again. He couldn't wait for it.

"I did do something. I made drawings of you – just finished my 1,000th today." He said, and Summer smiled.

"Well then, if you drew me it's a good thing. I want you to bring that drawing here when you come, okay?"

"Okay, my lady." Seth replied and Summer giggled.

"I miss you." She whispered and sighed.

"I miss you too."

"I can't wait until tomorrow." Summer said and flinched when she heard the door being pushed open. She sat up to see a very unhappy looking Ashley standing in the doorframe, giving her an evil glare.

"You'll have tomorrow sooner than me." Seth said.

"What the hell happened? Why are you looking like you want to kill someone?" Summer asked instead of paying attention to Seth, frowning. "Also, before you say something, close the door, I'm freezing to death here."

"I suppose I'm not the one you're talking to right now." Seth said at the other end of the line, and Summer smiled at how sweet that statement had sounded. "No baby, I'm not. Ashley's here, and she looks like she might wanna kill me… I think I need to hang up." She replied with a little regret in her voice. The truth was, she didn't want to hang up right now, but the look on Ashley's face didn't really give her any other choice.

"Oh… okay." Seth answered. "I guess I'll just return to… doing nothing for a change."

Summer smiled. "I hope you'll have fun."

"Yeah thanks, it'll be a blast. I might even consider calling Ryan now. And you know how much of a talker he is."

"I'm so sorry baby… but we'll see each other in less than…" Summer took a quick glance at her watch, "18 hours. And remember, I have a surprise for you."

"I love you." Seth replied, and just hearing those three words made Summer's heart jump with joy.

"I love you, too. Bye." And as hard as it was for her right now, Summer flipped her cell phone shut and crossed her arms in front of her chest to keep some of the cold Ashley had brought into the room away from her.

Ashley was still standing fully dressed in front of the door and shook her head. "You won't believe what Todd Bennett's telling everyone from our chemistry class – that I slept with him! I mean hello? Todd Bennett? That guy shaves his chest, AND his legs. I mean how gross is that?"

Summer shook her head and smiled. There had been times when she cared about what people said about her just as much as Ashley, but not anymore. That had been back in her High School days, when she'd had one new boyfriend like every week. But with Seth everything was different, and Summer knew that she had become a better person because of him.

And tomorrow he'd be here.

Inhaling deeply, Summer prepared for one of the famous "calm down" talks with Ashley, knowing it was gonna take some time to soothe her friend again.

* * *

It was 12:15 pm.

According to the flight schedule, the arrival of Seth's plane was 12:08 pm. And the plane wasn't even in sight yet.

Well, Summer didn't really know if it was in sight since she was waiting in the arrival area inside of the terminal, but Seth's flight wasn't even marked as descending yet.

Nervously, she got her cell phone out of her purse and flipped it open, as if she hoped for a message from Seth. But if he was in the plane it was better if she didn't have a message, otherwise she'd been _really_ worried.

But it wasn't normal that the flight wasn't already there, was it? Summer had been flying all her life, but today she seemed to have forgotten everything about delayed departure or arrival times, or that flights just happened to be late, for no particular reason.

Maybe she was just nervous because she had waited for this moment to come ever since she had been moving to Providence, and now that it was almost there she couldn't wait for it.

12:16 pm.

This was ridiculous. Where was this stupid flight? Lost in the Bermuda Triangle?

_Descending. _

Finally.

As she read that word, Summer was getting all excited. It was just a matter of time and Seth's feet would touch the Rhode Island soil for the first time in his life – and she could finally, finally hold him in her arms, knowing that she didn't need to leave like she always used to when she visited back in Newport.

At 12:22 pm, the baggage was ready to be picked up by its owners. And Summer was getting more and more excited.

When the first passengers exited the arrival area at 12:30 pm, her heart felt like dropping out of her chest because it was beating so hard. Her eyes were searching for the brown curly hair she loved to run her hands through. Over the past few months Seth had decided to bring the old Jew-fro back to life, and one and a half weeks ago when Summer had last seen him it looked almost like the way it had when she had fallen in love with him three and a half years ago.

And then, after what seemed like an eternity, the Jew-fro came walking towards her, bringin with it the famous dimples and two suitcases. A few meters away from her, he stopped and looked at her from head to toe, just as if to make sure that this was real. That it was really her standing in front of him. She smiled like a little girl and did the same with him, examining him from head to toe to convince herself that he wasn't just a vision.

Putting the suitcases down, Seth took a few steps towards her. When Summer saw that Seth was approaching her she couldn't remain standing still and broke off into a run in his direction, and just a few seconds later, she fell into his open arms, peppering his lips with thousands of kisses. He tasted like Cohen, he smelled like Cohen, and his lips felt like Cohen. And he was all hers now. They would go to California together, and the next time, they would leave it again _together_.

When she had been falling into his arms, Seth had pulled her as close as possible, and, just as he had announced it, he buried his face in her shiny brown hair and smelled it. It smelled like Summer. It smelled like love. It smelled like home. And even though he was scared to no end of his new life here in Providence, he knew that there was no place in the world he'd rather be.

They were remaining in this movie-like position for a few more minutes, ignoring everyone else around them and just enjoying to have the warmth of the other one's body to make them feel complete.

A few minutes later they broke apart, just for a few inches so that they could look into each other's eyes, and Summer smiled happily at him.

"Welcome." She whispered and Seth grinned and placed a sweet little kiss on her forehead.

"Good to be home." He replied.

Summer put a hand on Seth's face and softly stroked his cheek with her thumb. "I've been waiting for this moment for ages. We're gonna rock this city."

Seth laughed. "Of course we will. Providence just needed a dose of Cohen. Some nerdy, geeky, sarcastic comments. And, of course, my charm." He replied.

Summer's eyes sparkled. "A person like you was really missed here." Another sweet kiss landed on Seth's cheek when she took his hand. "Now come on. I wanna show you something."

"The surprise?"

Smirking, Summer nodded.

Each of them took one of Seth's suitcases, and they left the terminal, hand in hand, to walk into their new life.

* * *

The hill been her favorite place to hang out and think. She had been sitting here, on her favorite blanket, in the grass in fall, watching how the leaves were gently falling down from the trees. She had been standing here when the first snow had been falling, and she had made sort of a happy dance. It was the first time it snowed in a place she lived. The small hill gave a beautiful view of the city of Providence, and you could see everything from up here. Summer had discovered the place three days after she had moved here, and she had immediately declared it "her" place. Now it was "their" place.

Summer knew this was the perfect place to go with Seth, even before he moved into his new dorm room or before she showed him hers. They had been separated for far too long, they deserved to be together now. Alone. Without family or roomies interrupting.

"So…." Summer said and turned around to take a look at the city, her cheeks glowing from excitement. "What do you think?"

Seth gave the city a short look but focused his attention back to Summer within seconds. "I think it's beautiful." He said and gave her a look that almost made her heart melt.

Smiling shyly, Summer pointed down to where the city was laying, the sounds of the cars drowned out by the snow. "The city's down there, Cohen."

Cupping her face in his hands, Seth grinned and nodded. "I know. But the beauty's up here."

Tilting her head, Summer bit her lower lip and smiled happily. She couldn't believe that the day she had been waiting for months had finally come. How many times had she come up here to watch the city life taking place in front of her, and how many times had she been thinking about Seth then? About how it would be if he was with her, for real? Countless times. And now everything she needed was in front of her.

"I can't believe this is true." She said and sighed. "That you're finally here."

"You want me to pinch you to prove it's true?" Seth aked and let his hands slide down Summer's back, pulling her closer in the process.

"If you really do that, so help you God." Summer replied and narrowed her eyes as if to warn her boyfriend. "Cause then _I_ might hurt _you_."

Letting out a little laugh, Seth couldn't resist anymore. He put a hand on her chin and brought her tiny face closer to his, but he stopped just before their lips touched. Summer, who had already closed her eyes opened them again and gave him a disappointed stare.

"What-"

"Shh." Putting a finger on her lips, Seth smiled. "I love you."

Overwhelmed by the perfection of that moment, and having the person she loved that close to her, Summer's eyes filled with tears, but none of them fell. Before they got the chance to, Seth's lips gently kissed each of Summer's eyes, careful not to ruin her beautiful make up, and the tears were gone. As Seth's lips travelled down Summer's face neither of them could even try to sum up the feelings that were inside of them, and they knew it wasn't necessary.

After what had seemed like an eternity, Seth's lips finally met Summer's for a long and passionate kiss, making up for the countless weeks that they had needed to spend apart.

All of a sudden, Summer gently shoved Seth's face away and licked her lips as if to savor the taste of their just shared kiss. Her hands were clutched together around Seth's neck and she smiled at him happily. "I love you too." She whispered and pulled his face close again, to continue with where they had stopped a few seconds ago.

While they were kissing, their minds were completely blank, and everything their hearts felt were joy and happiness because the person they loved the most was with them – this time for real. Their relationship was special. It was friendship. It was affection. It was love.

It was what they were living for.

_Please review!_


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